U S Club dominate 1st day of Grover Vineyards golf

DEFENDING CHAMPIONS UNITED SERVICES CLUB rubbished the concept of ‘home advantage’ to jump to a 5 ½  point lead on the opening day of the Grover Zampa Vineyards Inter-Club Golf Championship 2016 being played at the Willingdon Sports Club in Mumbai on Saturday.

U S Club tallied 18 points, with hosts WSC in 2nd place with 12 1/2.  BPGC are in 3rd spot with 12 points, followed by Poona Golf Club with 10 ½.

It was in the fourballs competition that U S Club struck it rich, scoring 10 ½ points, with four of their pairing winning their matches and two pairs sharing a point with their rivals. They also did well in the singles, tallying 4 ½ points and then scoring 3 in the foursomes to stake a strong claim to the title.

The pairing of Dharmesh Karani and Ashish Goel of U S Club scored maximum 2 ½ points against WSC’s Ashish Agarwal and Pradip Patel to make a strong start in the fourball, after which their teammates kept up the momentum to pull away from their rivals.

BPGC, who did well in the singles to lead with 5 points, failed to make an impact in the foursomes, with only the pairing of Amit Nigam and 13-year—old Kaurvika Kumari winning their match in dramatic fashion. Trailing by 3 holes with five to go against WSC’s top pairing of one handicapper Kushaal Thackersey and H Thackersey, Amit and Kaurvika won the next four and then halved the 18th hole to win the match. The 17th hole was won by a chip in by Kaurvika from about 30 feet which had the goodly crowd applauding the Western India ladies champion.

The other youngster in the fray, Keshav Mishra of U S Club, lost his singles match against BPGC’s Anuj Thapar.

Final scores: U S Club 18 points (singles 4 ½, foursomes 3, fourballs 10 ½); WSC 12 ½ (singles 3 ½, foursomes 2, fourballs 7); BPGC 12 ½ (singles 5, foursomes 2, fourballs 5); PGC (10 ½ (singles 1, foursomes 5, fourballs 4 ½).